Piano.



W. M. BAUER.

PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22.1914.

Patented Feb. 15, 1910.

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PIANO. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22. 1914.

1 1 7 1 ,92 1 Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

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W. M. BAUER.

PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 22, I914.

1,171,921. Patented Feb.15,1916.

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WILLIAM M. BAUER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PIANO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

Application filed June 22, 1914. Serial No. 846,525.

7 '0 all whom it may concern Be it known that I, VILLIAM M. BAUER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of (00k and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Pianos, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain improvements in piano construction, which are applicable to all types of pianos.

The primary object of my invention is to enable the so-called wooden back usually employed in the present construction of pianos to be dispensed with. This feature, which is the bed or bottom of a horizontal piano and the back of an upright piano, and upon which the sounding-board is supported, is formed of massive wooden beams. It not only adds materially to the cost of construction, so that entirely dispensing with it reduces the expense thereof, but being subject to swelling and contracting under the influence of variations in the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere, it tends to disorganize the whole structure of the instrument and detrimentally affect the pitch.

Another object of my improvement is to provide for incasing the wooden pin-block in the metal plate; and a still further object is to provide means for adjusting the contour of the sounding board by increasing when needed, its crown. Y

For the purposes of illustration and description, my improvements are shown in their application to a grand piano in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a broken plan view of the bodyof a grand piano showing my improvements; Fig. 2 is an enlarged section on line 2, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an enlarged section on the irregular line 3-3, Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is an enlarged section on line 4, Fig. 1.

The wooden case 5 of the instrument may be formed in the usual manner. For a grand piano, this case is composed, as usual, of a plurality of wooden layers cemented fiatwise together and bent in a suitable form into the desired configuration. The metal plate 6 is a casting formed with a skeleton center within a comparatively wide metal rim 7 of T-shape in cross-section conforming to the wooden case and fastened to the inner face of the latter by upper lag-bolts at intervals and similar lower bolts passing through ears 9 extending from the lower edge of the rim. To the under face of the web-portion or ledge 8 ofthe rim is secured the sounding board 10,:which, in itself, need containno feature of novelty. 'A strip 11, formed of layers of wood cemented flatwise together, is preferably, but not necessarily provided to-extendabout the upper face of the sounding board near its edge,'to the contour of which it conforms; and a similar but somewhat thicker reinforcing strip ,12 is secured, as by cementing, to the opposite face thereof to extend coincidently with the strip 11. Screws 13 are passed through screw-holes formed at intervals in the ledge 8 and through the strips 11 and 12 and the sounding board to secure the latter in place on the rim 7. The screw-holes in the strip 11 should be of the relatively large diameter shown, to permit crowning of the sounding board as hereinafter explained. Thus the sounding board, instead of being carried, as is the present common practice, by a massive wooden back, is carried by the rim 7, which reinforces the frame 5 and enables the back to be entirely omitted, with the advantages hereinbefore mentioned.

The flat perforated metal section 14 usually formed in the forward end of the metal plate for carrying and covering the wooden pin-block 15, is provided with outer and in ner depending flanges 15 and 15 to embrace and thus, with the forward-end section of the rim 7, reinforcingly incase the pin-block- The crown in a piano sounding-board is liable to become more or less flattened out in time, requiring the board to be re-warped. To enable this to be done readily, as by a tuner in tuning the instrument, and thus save sending the latter away for repairing, I provide set-screws 16 in accessible position at intervals about the sounding board for warping the latter into the required crowned condition by turning them more or less slightly. The preferred position of these set-screws is that shown, of working at intervals in threaded holes in the lower part of the rim 7 where recesses 17 are provided to coincide with them in the inner face of the frame 5, and with their hexagonal heads abutting against the outer face of the strip 12, whereby properly turning the set-screws, as by application of a suitable wrench, will compress the strip and produce the desired crown.

I realize that considerable variation is possible in the'details of construction thus specifically shown and described, and l do not intend by illustrating single, specific or preferred embodiments of my invention to be limited thereto; my intention being in the appended claims to claim protection upon all the novelty there may be in my invention, as broadly as the state of the art will permit.-

What ll claim' as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is l. lln a piano, in combination with the piano case, a metal rim secured to the inner face of the case and extending about the same and provided with an inwardly extending ledge, a sounding-board provided at each side of its edge portion with a Wooden reinforcing portion firmly secured thereto and screws passing through the ledge at intervals and threaded into the reinforced portion of the sounding-board whereby it is secured to the ledge.

2. in a piano, in combination with the piano case, a metal rim secured to the inner face of the case and extending about the same and .providedwith an inwardly extending ledge, a sounding-board provided at eachside of its edge portion with a reinforcing portion formed of laminated wood,- SltlCl reintorcing portion being firmly secured to the edge portion of the soundinglooard, and screws passing through the ledge at intervals and threaded into the reinforced portion of the soi'indin'g-hoard whereby it is secured to the ledge.

3. in a piano, in combination with the piano case, a l"-metal rim securedat both of its flanges to the inner face of the case and extending about the same to provide an inwardly extending ledge, a sounding board provided at its edge-portion with wooden reinforcement firmly secured thereto, and screws at intervals firmly securing the soundingeboard at its reinforced edge to hear thereat against said ledge.

manner 4. In a piano, in combination with a piano case, a T metal rim secured at both of its flanges to the inner face of the case and extending about the same to provide an inwardly extending ledge, a soundingboard provided at each side of its edge portion with a wooden reinforcing portion firmly secured thereto, and screws passing through the ledge at intervals and threaded into the reinforced portion of the sounding-board whereby it is secured to the ledge.

5. ln a piano, in combination with a piano case, a metal rim secured to the inner face of the case and extending about the same and provided with an inwardly extending ledge, a soumling-board provided at one side oi its edge portion with a wooden reinforcing portion firmly secured thereto, screws passing); through the ledge at intervals and threaded into the reinforced portion of the sounding-board whereby the sounding-board is secured to the ledge, and set screws threaded into the rim at intervals with their heads bearing against the wooden reinforced portion.

6. In a piano, in combination with a piano case, a metal rim secured to the inner face of the case and extending about the same, provided with an inwardly extending ledge, a horizontal sounding-board provided at each side of its edge portion with a wooden reinforcing portion firmly secured thereto, screws passing through the ledge at intervals and through openings of greater diameter than the screw formed in the upper reinforcing portion, said screws being threaded into the sounding-board and the lower reinforcing portion, and set screws supported at intervals in said rim to abut their heads against the outer face of the urn der reinforcing strip.

WILLlAM M. BAUER. in presence of-- D. C. 'lnionsnx, U. C. Avrsns. 

